The National Television Academy of Arts & Sciences is weighing options regarding its biggest event of the year. In a new report that surfaced Wednesday, it’s said the 2023 Emmy Awards may be pushed back until next year due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes. Initially scheduled to take place on September 18th, a report from Variety suggests the group is looking to push the awards gala into November at the earliest, with a potential date of January should the strikes last long enough.
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In addition to residual and royalty issues, a main sticking point in the ongoing work stoppage is the studio’s use of artificial intelligence. Oppenheimer helmer Christopher Nolan recently said the prospect of AI in filmmaker is terrifying.
“The rise of companies in the last 15 years bandying words like algorithm – not knowing what they mean in any kind of meaningful, mathematical sense – these guys don’t know what an algorithm is,” Nolan shared earlier this month. “People in my business talking about it, they just don’t want to take responsibility for whatever that algorithm does.”
He continued, “Applied to AI, that’s a terrifying possibility. Terrifying … Not least because, AI systems will go into defensive infrastructure ultimately. They’ll be in charge of nuclear weapons. To say that that is a separate entity from the person wielding, programming, putting that AI to use, then we’re doomed. It has to be about accountability. We have to hold people accountable for what they do with the tools that they have.”
During a SAG-AFTRA press conference last week, union executive Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) made a proposal to SAG-AFTRA that would have film and television extras’ likenesses be used in perpetuity.
“This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday: they propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” Crabtree-Ireland revealed. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”
